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Home / Lifestyle

'What a shambles': KFC runs out of gravy week after chicken crisis

By Alex Matthews
Daily Mail·
28 Feb, 2018 07:54 PM4 mins to read

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Colonel Sanders chicken has become a Kiwi favorite, so how much do we spend at KFC? Video / NZ Herald

KFC UK has run out of gravy barely a week after its chicken crisis saw angry diners go without their favourite fast food.

Chicken lovers were plunged into misery last week when a delivery crisis at KFC's giant warehouse in Rugby saw branches temporarily close.

The chain claims that 97 per cent of its restaurants are back open after hundreds were forced to shut their doors.

But customers are fuming because their favourite side orders are off the menu, the Daily Mail reported.

As KFC tries to soothe angry diners, police have warned pranksters not to waste their time after releasing audio from a man complaining about the chicken shortage.

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KFC has been under fire in the past week, and after re-opening the almost all of its closed branches, is now dealing with furious fans on Twitter.

Kerry writing: "When you have to leave @kfc drive thru because they have no gravy or sides!! I'm on me [sic] way @McDonalds you never let me down."

Paige posted: "My kfc has ran out of gravy what an absolute shambles."

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KFC has run out of gravy barely a week after its chicken crisis saw angry diners go without their favourite fast food. Photo / Getty
KFC has run out of gravy barely a week after its chicken crisis saw angry diners go without their favourite fast food. Photo / Getty

Greater Manchester Police have spoken out after a man rang up last Wednesday as handlers tried to deal with 73 other emergency calls in the same hour.

An audio clip of the call records the man taking 48 seconds to clear the line, putting lives at risk by keeping handlers from answering real emergencies.

Starting off by saying "I've got an emergency here" he then goes on to explain "I don't know how you feel about this but KFC is closed and I'm entirely not happy. I have to go to Burger King now."

The call handler responds immediately, knowing full well her time is needed elsewhere, saying it's not a police matter and that she is terminating the call but the man hangs on a little longer to ask who he should contact instead.

Superintendent Mark Kenny, who oversees the call-handling team, said: "While some will think this is a harmless prank or joke I want to reiterate the severity of this – we had 74 calls to 999 and 154 to 101 [non-emergency line] during the hour this came in, all of which needed our full attention.

"It's not a stretch to say that, had this man not selfishly called for such a ridiculous reason, we would have been able to help more people who had a real reason to pick up the phone during that time.

"These are the things we are here to help you with, and we want to be able to.

"Please, think before you pick up the phone."

The chaos at KFC followed the company's decision to ditch its delivery company Bidvest Logistics in favour of DHL, which took over two weeks ago.

A failure in its computer system meant deliveries out of its vast delivery hub went into meltdown.

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Restaurants ran out of chicken and were forced to shut, making KFC a laughing stock.

An apology advert from KFC has appeared in newspapers across Britain last week after its delivery crisis resulted in hundreds of closed stores and limited menus. Photo / KFC
An apology advert from KFC has appeared in newspapers across Britain last week after its delivery crisis resulted in hundreds of closed stores and limited menus. Photo / KFC

It has also emerged that DHL failed to register the warehouse as a meat cold storage and distribution centre with authorities before it took over the delivery contract.

After its mammoth delivery foul-up KFC released an advert apologising to their customers and assured they were "making progress". But a week on, certain items are still off the menu.

KFC UK & Ireland tweeted: "We're still ironing out a few kinks with our delivery issues, but we can assure you that gravy is at the top of our list to get back into restaurants."

But frustrated customers have been less than impressed.

Becca said: "I'm more fuming kfc have run out of gravy.'"

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Grace McConnell tweeted: "I'm getting withdrawals from kfc gravy."

Hannah Jones posted: "Me and Tom went out to do an food shop and we've ended up in @KFC_UKI. No gravy tho".

Jamie Buklovskis fumed: "KFC in Midd has ran out of f****** gravy, even worse than running out of chicken that."

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